Workshop focuses on vulnerabilities to extreme heat in Borderland

As the Borderland deals with another day of triple-digit temperatures, a workshop is being held to deal with extreme heat.

The group is a combination of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), regional experts, and local leaders from several departments.

Information will be used to develop the National Integrated Heat-Health Information System (NIHHIS).

Their goal is to understand, anticipate and respond to extreme heat.

El Paso is one of just five U.S. cities to pilot the initiative.

Extreme heat can be dangerous. Between 1979-2003, the CDC says extreme heat caused more deaths than hurricanes, lightning, tornadoes, floods and earthquakes combined.

Wednesday's workshop was a way to share information.

"A gentleman from the University of Arizona just presented. He was talking about the issues they deal with in Phoenix area, and they're about 10 degrees hotter than we are. If you take a look in context, the city of Albuquerque is 10 degrees cooler than we are, and so we're starting to learn where we're the same and where we're different, and what best practices they're implementing or we're implementing. So it's just about learning from each other," said Nicole Ferrini, chief resilience officer for the city of El Paso.

Ferrini told KFOX14 that Wednesday's workshop is the first of more to come.